Friday

Lagos Court Orders Police to Pay N200m to 2 Families After Their Children were Killed for Refusing to Pay Bribe

The Nigerian Police Force has been ordered by a Lagos State High
Court to pay N200m to the families of Sikiru Amusa and Endurance
Omonyahuy, who were killed by some policemen on their way to work.

Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo also awarded the sum of N500,000 to
Saheed Okewole, a friend of the slain men who was tortured by the
policemen and labelled an armed robber.

According to Punch, the two men were killed on February 15, 2012,
after a team of policemen attached to the Igando Police Station and led
by one Inspector Niyi Oladapo on patrol on the LASU-Igando Road, shot
the two men dead.

It was alleged that the police officers shot the men dead for
refusing to give them bribe. After the killing, the dubious police
officers labeled them robbers to cover their crime.

The report further revealed that after the killing, Okewole, who
was a friend and co-worker of the slain men, had tried to call one of
their phone lines when they appeared to be running late.

However, one of the policemen was said to have picked the call,
tricked the caller to divulge where he was calling from, and went to
arrest five young men at a mechanic workshop. They were all labelled
robbers and taken to the Igando Police Division.

But, things took a huge turn as the police officers' plan to cover
up the crime hit a brickwall after the employer of the deceased, Mr.
Wale Sadiku, the Chief Executive Officer, Multiple Covenant Investment
Limited, and Mr. Abayomi Sadiku, an influential Lagos-based lawyer
intervened in the case.

The policemen later confessed to the crime and were arrested and
transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Yaba.

Abayomi Sadiku of Vernia Legal Practitioners on August 8, 2012,
sued the police for human rights violation and demanded that N500m be
given to the families of the victims.

However, Justice Iyabo Kasali of a Lagos High Court dismissed the case.

Not deterred by the unfavourable judgement, Sadiku took the case to
the Court of Appeal where the court gave a landmark judgment.

In resolving the issue, the court noted that “the case boiled
down to a question of whether the constitutional right to life of a dead
man can be enforced by his dependents, wherein the court is faced with
an uphill task and will be swimming in uncharted waters, since there are
no authorities, either from the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal,
on the subject to guide the court on the journey through virgin
territory.”

The appellate court started by analysing the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure Rules.

The court stated that it was swayed by the mischief rule of
statutory interpretation, which was the oldest of the rules;
“established in Heydon’s Case (1584).”

In a unanimous judgment by Justice Amina Augie (who presided and
was recently elevated to the Supreme Court); Justice Samuel Oseji and
Justice Jamilu Tukur, the judges rebuked the judgment of the High Court.

The Appeal Court judges sent the case back to the High Court of Lagos State for a re-trial by a new judge.

The lawyer of the slain men took the judgment back to the High
Court and on May 3, 2016. Justice Onigbanjo gave them a favourable
judgment in the total sum of N200,500,000.

The court also ordered that the police should issue a public
apology in two national dailies for the infractions done. Mr. Sadiku
hailed the decision of the court. Sadiku said the case would serve as a
deterrent to trigger-happy security agents.

He said, “The police cannot appeal this judgment because the 90 days within which to do so has elapsed.”